1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel (PDP) and, more particularly to a highly efficient PDP which can be driven with low power and obtain high luminous brightness.
2. Description of the Related Art
Plasma display panels (PDPs) are a type of flat display devices that form images by using visible light produced from a phosphor material excited with ultraviolet (UV) rays generated by a plasma discharge.
In the PDPs, a front substrate having discharge electrodes arranged thereon and a rear substrate having address electrodes arranged thereon are attached to each other so as to face each other by interposing a plurality of barrier walls defining a plurality of discharge cells between the front and rear substrates. Then, a discharge gas is injected between the two substrates, and a phosphor material coating the discharge cells is excited by applying a discharge voltage between the discharge electrodes. Then, images are formed using visible light generated as a result of the excitation.
In the related art, a large portion of a phosphor layer is attached to side surfaces of the barrier walls. Because flowable phosphor paste sags and flows down from the side surfaces of the barrier walls, the phosphor layer is not formed with a sufficiently large and uniform thickness. In addition, the visible light generated from the phosphor layer is not emitted in an upward display direction, but rather it is emitted in the side surface direction of the barrier walls. Consequently, visible light extraction efficiency is low. Furthermore, since bottom surfaces of the discharge cells on which the phosphor material is concentrated are relatively far from the front substrate where the discharge electrodes are arranged, a sufficient amount of UV light does not reach the phosphor layer and thus fails to effectively excite the phosphor layer. Since an address discharge occurs along a long discharge path corresponding to the height of a discharge cell, a high address driving voltage is required, and a sufficient voltage margin is not obtained.